Failure of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform
There were numerous reasons that accounted for why the campaign for
Parliamentary reform failed in its objectives in the period 1780-1820,
with arguably the most significant factor being that those in
Parliament did not actually feel the need to reform the electoral
system because of the lack of unified pressure from the British
public. There was a substantial call for Parliamentary reform between
1780 and 1820, but the separate groups which were pressing for reform
did not unite and failed to appeal to the wider regions of the
population and therefore, reform was not at the top of the agenda
between these decades. The representation of Britain in the House of
Commons certainly did not reflect the composition of the country, as
Cornwall sent 44 members to Parliament, which was only one fewer than
the whole of Scotland combined. Large industrial towns such as
Manchester and Birmingham, consisting of 320,000 people, did not send
a single representative to the upper chamber of Parliament. Various
rules and qualifications such as a minimum level of income and
possessing a large enough fireplace were often required to vote in a
General Election, rules which were being called into question by
various groups in society such as the London Corresponding Society.
However, although these aspects of Parliament were clearly
undemocratic, the campaign for reform failed because the general
British public did not impose their views on those in power which
would result in reform coming about within Britain's sole governing
body.
Parliamentary reform was not the only target of reformist proposals ...
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...isciplined army which reduced the level of
activities that radicals could carry out at street level. The fact
that support for reform was generally concentrated in small areas
meant that there was no realistic chance of any sort of uprising
occurring as in France, because there wasn't consistent support for
reform across the whole country.
The main reason why parliamentary reform failed in its objectives from
1780 to 1820 was the fact that those in parliament, who were
realistically the only collective group of individuals who would bring
about reform, would only legislate for its own reform under threat.
The simple fact of the matter was that the different groups arguing
for reform did not threaten Parliament, as they did not wield a large
support base and used different methods to achieve their different
goals.
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Curtis, J., Fisher S., Lessard-Philips L. 2007.Proportional Representation and disappearing voter. British Social Attitudes: Perspectives on a changing society, ed. A.Park 119-25. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
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